Photo: CONNOR STEINKAMP

The city of Chicago’s $51.5-million fire station program designed and constructed four new fire stations in the Near West Side, Edgewater, Rogers Park, and Beverly neighborhoods.

Located to help trigger urban renewal and designed be community resources, the new single-level, 15,000-sq-ft fire stations were built on abandoned building sites or sites that were community eyesores.

The project began with development of a base prototype fire station design that addressed the site- and station-specific needs identified by the architects and engineers of record for each station.

To provide consistency among the four projects, the Public Building Commission designated Tishman Construction Corp. to serve as the owner’s representative for all four projects, each of which had a different architect and general contractor.

Right from the design phase, the group held weekly roundtable meetings to allow cooperative discussion and to solve problems. A comprehensive 700-page lessons-learned document developed as the program went along that helped all projects learn from the experiences of the others.

All four stations were designed and built for green living, energy efficiency, heavy-duty use, minimal maintenance, and a 100-year life.

EC 18 is in the process of LEED Silver certification. ECs 70 and 121 have achieved Silver certification, and EC 102 earned Gold certification, the first Illinois fire station to receive the distinction.